AMMON ROST

THE CEILING TURNED OUT TO BE THE FLOOR

2 MAY 2020 to 6 JUNE 2020

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AMMON ROST
THE CEILING TURNED OUT TO BE THE FLOOR
SOLO EXHIBITION (PROJECT ROOM & MAIN GALERY)
EXHIBITION DATES: 2 MAY 2020 to 6 JUNE 2020
OPENING RECEPTION: SAT, MAY 2ND FROM 7:00 - 10:00 PM
GALLERY HOURS: TUES - SAT / BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
NEW IMAGE ART, 7920 SANTA MONICA BLVD LOS ANGELES CA 90046

NIA is pleased to present, The Ceiling Turned Out To Be The Floor, a solo exhibition by Ammon Rost opening Saturday, May 2nd, 2020.

Playful, radiant colors nested in the canvas satisfy the current appetite for optimistic themes, while the presence of expressionist language in the picture plane connects with the visceral, human emotion that can be articulated through the flicking of a brush. Born and raised in Tokyo before relocating to California, Rost's bicultural Japanese-American background offers a distinct read on worldly themes through a dual-linguistic lens.

“We experience a range of feelings and nuanced states of mind, and they need language to describe them,” he says. “Each culture and language tackles this differently”.Genki a commonly used term in Japan to indicate how one is doing, translates in English as doing ‘well,” but really it means so much more than that. Genki enters into the vocabulary of the spiritual realm and mindfulness. The English language simply has no translation that fits. It means you have a vigorous spiritual energy flowing through you — a pure primary energy. Throughout his career Rost has been engaged with language relating to the spirit. “Language can awaken your reality and connect you with universally felt matters,” says Rost, who describes his own process of creating his unique painterly language, “like playing a round of Pictionary with characters behind the psychic veil.” The work reveals formed shapes, strong and soft lines—suggestive of bodily features, facial expressions, fruit, geography, flight taking animals. Some are whizzing through the picture plane; others at rest. The unifying quality is one of tenderness and vulnerability.